


Flower Girls

by orphan_account



Series: Where You're Planted [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Abusive Relationship, Bisexual Character, Blood Magic, F/F, Lily Evans Is A Feminist, Past Sexual Assault, Pureblood Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 22:58:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14067432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Narcissa’s head snaps around. She had been so focused on the faint boom that had come from the direction Sirius went that she hadn’t noticed the approach of a fourth year Gryffindor named Lily Evans. She has long red hair, bright green eyes, and is currently wearing a mustard yellow shirt proclaiming that ‘a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle’ under her robes.Set during Narcissa's fifth year at Hogwarts in my Where You're Planted series. You don't have to read one to understand the other.





	Flower Girls

It’s Narcissa’s fifth year at Hogwarts, and OWLs are looming ever nearer. She finds herself in the library more often than not, reading about concepts she hadn’t quite grasped in class or rewriting her notes more legibly. Madam Pince has sharp eyes and sharper protective instincts when it comes to guarding her paper kingdom, so Narcissa has tea in a silver flask and furtively takes a sip whenever she’s sure Madam Pince is well and truly distracted. One such distraction had come in the form of her cousin, Sirius Black. He hadn’t done anything that Narcissa had seen, but his presence was enough to send Madam Pince trailing after him, nervously waiting for whatever disaster was sure to follow in his wake.

“Is that fire whiskey?” an amused voice asks. 

Narcissa’s head snaps around. She had been so focused on the faint boom that had come from the direction Sirius went that she hadn’t noticed the approach of a fourth year Gryffindor named Lily Evans. She has long red hair, bright green eyes, and is currently wearing a mustard yellow shirt proclaiming that ‘a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle’ under her robes. 

Before she can think better of it, Narcissa says, “I wish.”

Lily smiles a little. “That might make remembering whatever you’re studying difficult.”

“Charms,” Narcissa informs her. “An acceptable loss, at this point.”

The other girl flops into the chair across from Narcissa. “Not a fan?” she wants to know.

“It’s never come easily to me,” Narcissa allows. “It’s too useful not to study though.”

Lily begins digging through her book bag, piling several thick tomes on the table. Narcissa watches the other witch dive wand first into the bag, up past her shoulders. “Lumos,” she hears Lily mutter. “Accio ink.”

“That’s quite the Expansion Charm you’ve got,” she says when Lily emerges, covered in soot but triumphantly holding a bottle of ink.

“Took me forever,” Lily sighs. “The Ministry has some odd laws about them, so I had to find a way around them. Unfortunately that involved the sacrifice of any sort of organizational system.”

“Did you consider just not informing the Ministry you were performing one?” Narcissa inquires.

“I’m a Muggle-born,” she replies frankly. “I break a law, they break my wand and have another example to point at the next time someone decides we don’t deserve to be part of the magical world.”

“All the more motivation not to get caught,” Narcissa tells her. 

There is another distant explosion, and something that might be Peeves cackling. Both girls turn in that direction. “Did that sound closer than the last one?” Lily asks.

Narcissa returns to the Charms book she’d been reading. “Sirius knows better than to bother me.”

“Dungbombs don’t discriminate though,” Lily points out.

Narcissa sniffs. Wafting toward them is the unmistakable scent of dungbombs. “Fairer than the magical world that way, aren’t they?” she asks.

This gets a smile out of Lily, and they begin to pack their belongings up. Students had begun streaming passed them, out of the library. “Fancy a walk?” Lily asks. “I actually had a question about Runes, and I’ve heard you’re something of an expert.”

“More of an expert than our professor?” Narcissa wants to know, slinging her bag over her shoulder. 

“It’s about blood wards,” Lily says bluntly.

Narcissa fights the urge to clamp her hand over the younger girl’s mouth. She settles for hissing, “Keep your voice down. Who’s been saying I use blood magic?”

The Lily blinks at her. “No one? I just figured with your family and all.”

“With my family and all,” Narcissa repeats, exasperated, and begins dragging her down the hall. “Let’s go outside. I don’t want to be overheard.”

They walk in silence until they’re in the shelter of a small grove of pine trees on the edge of the Great Lake. Narcissa casts as many privacy spells as she can think of, while Lily casts a Warming Charm. “It’s pretty back here,” she says.

The trees obscure the castle from their sight, and her charm creates a perfect circle of bare ground as it melts the snow. “Blood magic is illegal,” Narcissa informs her. “Very illegal.”

Lily looks dismissive. “Aren’t you basically like a princess or something? What’s anyone going to do?”

“I’m the youngest daughter of a younger son,” Narcissa corrects. “I’ll never be the lady of a family. And if by ‘anyone’ you mean the Ministry, they’ll send me to Azkaban.”

She frowns. “Is it that serious?”

Narcissa sighs. “All of the old families still do it, of course, but yes. Grindelwald used blood magic to kill or enslave a great many magical beings, and the Ministry has been wary of it since.”

“But everyone uses it?” Lily prompts.

“Including me,” Narcissa confirms. “I’ll answer your questions, but you’re not leaving here unless you make a vow not to tell anyone that I’m the one who told you.”

“I’ll make a vow,” she agrees, which makes Narcissa instantly suspicious.

What could the younger girl want to know so badly? They clasp hands. “Repeat after me,” Narcissa instructs. “I, state your name.”

“I, Lily Evans.”

“Do solemnly swear.”

“Do solemnly swear.”

“On my blood and on my magic.”

“On my blood and on my magic.”

“To keep hidden Narcissa Black’s involvement.”

“To keep hidden Narcissa Black’s involvement.”

“In obtaining the knowledge I wish to acquire.”

“In obtaining the knowledge I wish to acquire.”

Their magic flares, silver and orange, and then fades. “Cool,” Lily breathes.

“Your blood will boil if you break your word,” Narcissa informs her pleasantly.

“Wouldn’t it be better to make it so I couldn’t reveal the information at all?” she wants to know.

Narcissa shrugs delicately. “It would be impolite. I’m sure you’ve noticed that witches and wizards are very fond of free will and choice, even if it’s only an illusion at times.”

Lily harrumphs. “I’ve noticed.”

“Ask your questions, Evans,” she prompts. “I’m not getting any younger.”

The redhead looks her up and down. “You look fine to me.”

“Careful,” Narcissa warns. “I’ll start to think you like me.”

The other girl snorts. “Right. Well, I know I can do blood magic, but I was wondering if being Muggle-born had any affect on it?”

“What have you been doing?” Narcissa asks.

“A potion for acne and a stone charmed as a reading light for my bed, so far,” Lily answers. “They both worked fine, from what I can tell, but I’ve never seen it done properly.”

Narcissa nods thoughtfully. “I’ve never known a Muggle-born who used blood magic, but I think that’s likely just because none of you are ever taught. What color is your reading light?”

“Kind of orange. I haven’t been able to get it to change,” she confesses.

“It won’t,” Narcissa tells her. “That’s the same color you saw when you made the vow, correct?”

Lily nods. “Yeah. It’s not the best for reading though.”

“It’s the color of your magic,” Narcissa says. “Any blood magic you work that causes light to be emitted will be that color.”

“So your magic is silver?” she wants to know.

“Yes. Everyone in my family has silver magic. That’s what blood purity is really about, is having a magic that can be consistently passed down.”

“Like genetics,” Lily says, adding, “It’s a Muggle thing. It explains why children look like their parents,” when Narcissa looks confused.

Narcissa nods. “Exactly like genetics then. The color of someone’s magic is used to determine what family they belong to. Children usually take after their father. If they take after their mother they’re given her maiden name. It matters for inheritance purposes, mostly. Muggle-born parents have unpredictable children, and no one wants to risk a family dying out or losing their money, political power, or properties to a lesser branch of the family.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Lily says. “Why don’t they just change the laws?”

“I’m not going to argue with you,” Narcissa tells her. “My family is infamously paranoid about that sort of thing. My aunt and uncle, the Lord and Lady Black, are first cousins.”

Lily makes a face. “Yuck.”

“I was briefly betrothed to Sirius,” she offers. 

“Double yuck,” says Lily.

“You mentioned blood wards, specifically,” Narcissa steers them back to their original topic of conversation.

Lily brightens. “Yeah! I was wondering if they could be attached to a person instead of a property or item.”

“Wise of you not to experiment with that,” Narcissa notes. 

Her face falls. “It’s not possible?”

“It’s possible,” Narcissa assures her. “But only once. You have to willingly sacrifice yourself to cast them.”

“That’s awful,” says Lily. “Someone has to kill you?”

“Or you can do it yourself,” Narcissa says. “Terminally ill parents use it, for the most part. The occasional would-be double homicide victim.”

Lily shudders. “That’s so…”

“Dark?” Narcissa finishes. “It is. Why did you want to know?”

“My parents,” Lily answers. “There’s been rumors about Muggle-borns and their families being attacked. I was hoping I could set up some sort of protection.”

“Do you really just tell everyone anything they want to know?” Narcissa asks. “You’re far too trusting. I could be one of the people attacking Muggles, for all you know.”

“Are you?” Lily wants to know.

“Of course not,” says Narcissa. 

Lily looks triumphant. “There you go.”

Narcissa fights the urge to rub her temples. 

\-------

Narcissa finds Lily in the library two weeks later. The red-haired witch is curled up in a comfortable loveseat in the depths of the Charms section, petting a fluffy gray cat and reading a book so old the title has worn away. The cat blinks eyes like harvest moons at her, and chirps. Lily looks up. Today she’s wearing a casual gray sweater dress, thick black tights, and a smile. “Hey,” she says.

“Hey yourself,” Narcissa replies. “I have a book you might be interested in.”

Lily brightens. “About you-know-what?”

“Protective runes in general, really. Not necessarily you-know-what. You’ll be able to apply them even though you’re underage since it’s not wand magic,” Narcissa tells her, digging the book out of her back.

It’s small, red, and has faded gold lettering proclaiming it to be Protective Magicks for the Home. “Thank you,” Lily says, taking it. “I’ll have it back to you after winter break?”

Narcissa nods. “I’ll see if I can find anything else in my family’s library then.”

She moves to leave, but Lily catches her arm. “Want to stay for a while? Company might help me stay awake through this,” she gestures at the book she’d been reading. “My Latin is atrocious so it’s a bit of a headache.”

Narcissa acquiesces and settles onto the loveseat next to her. “I’m fluent, if you have any questions,” she offers, and pulls out the Transfiguration essay she was supposed to be working on. 

They work in comfortable silence for a while, until Lily begins to list sideways onto Narcissa’s shoulder. She does this three times, apologizing the first two times and beginning to snore softly the third. She looks down at the younger girl, unsure of what to do. No one had dared to fall asleep on her before. It was so...casual. And trusting. She settles for continuing her essay. 

Lily sleeps for most of an hour, long enough for Narcissa to finish her essay and begin making flashcards for Charms. The younger girl sits bolt upright, startling Narcissa into knocking over her bottle of ink. They blink at each other for a moment. Lily cleans up the spilled ink. “Sorry,” she apologizes. “This whole thing where a Slytherin doesn’t curse me when they see me is new.”

“You’re friends with Snape, aren’t you?” Narcissa inquires. 

“He’s being kind of an ass right now,” Lily tells her. 

Narcissa makes a face she hopes implies that she thinks the Potions prodigy is always a bit of an ass. “What’s he been doing?” she prompts, because Lily seems like she wants to rant.

“His friends don’t like me,” the younger girl mutters. 

“Avery, Mulciber, and the Crouch heir?” Narcissa asks. 

Lily nods. “I don’t understand why he doesn’t either stand up for me or tell me we can’t be friends anymore. He’ll watch them curse me, and laugh with them when they call me a Mudblood, but then he’ll apologize later and we’ll hang out like before Hogwarts and he’ll be nice to me,” she says..

“You knew each other before Hogwarts?” Narcissa is interested.

The other girl nods. “We grew up in the same neighborhood. Cokeworth.”

Narcissa doesn’t quite manage to stop the expression that crosses her face. She’d never been to Cokeworth personally, but it had a reputation. “Neither of you seem like you’re from that kind of neighborhood,” she says carefully.

Now Lily shrugs. “Severus’s mother is a witch from a good family, I guess. Prince, I think? And I’ve always hated it there. Before I found out I was a witch I was going to try and get a scholarship to university. I drove my sister crazy practicing in the mirror to get rid of the accent.”

“You did well,” Narcissa tells her. “I never would have guessed where you were from. What are your plans now that you know you’re a witch though?”

Another shrug. “Can’t do much, can I?” Lily asks. “I could be the reincarnation of Merlin and all anyone would see is my blood status.”

“James Potter is infatuated with you,” Narcissa points out. “And he’s heir to the most powerful family in Britain.” 

Lily looks horrified. “You think I should marry for money?”

“You’d be safe, and no one would discriminate against you. The current Lord and Lady Potter are likely to live another forty or fifty years, at least, so you’d have time for a career before you had to take up the mantle of Lady Potter. It’s not a bad deal,” she tells her.

The younger girl shakes her head. “I want to make it on my own. I don’t want to ever rely on a man.”

“Men are quite unreliable,” Narcissa agrees. “If it doesn’t work out you could always kill him after you have an heir though.”

“Is that your plan?” Lily asks curiously. 

Narcissa raises her eyebrows. “I don’t think that’s something you want to be an accessory to.”

Lily agrees, and they go their separate ways soon after that. 

\-------

It’s after winter break. Narcissa is creeping, Disillusioned, through the Hogwarts dungeons. She’s on her way steal supplies for a birth control potion out of Slughorn’s private stores. Bellatrix couldn’t collect the materials herself, or buy one without Rodolphus knowing. He kept track of and controlled every knut she spent. Narcissa wasn’t sure if it was the Dark magic her sister used, bad luck, or something else but she’d had her second miscarriage right before Yule. 

She thinks back to her sister, laying dejectedly in a hospital bed in a private wing of St. Mungo’s. Narcissa had been the only one there, their mother busy helping their aunt prepare for the Yule ball their family hosted, and Rodolphus uninterested in a child that was neither male nor alive. “I can’t keep doing this,” Bellatrix had said. “It’s going to kill me, or Rodolphus is going to kill me. He was so angry. What if the next baby is a boy? He thinks I’m doing this on purpose, to spite him. Or that I’m cheating on him, and I’m trying to cover up that it wasn’t his.”

Bellatrix had looked more desperate in that hospital bed than she did when an Auror had her at wandpoint. “I might be able to help,” Narcissa had said. 

So here she was, standing perfectly still as Filch stomped past her, grumbling to himself. After he rounds a corner, she unlocks Slughorn’s office and stops dead, because Lily Evans is already there, rummaging through a cabinet. Lily had looked up when the door opened. Seeing no one, she had her wand out. Since Narcissa was still Disillusioned, it was pointed about two feet too far to the left. Narcissa drops the charm and shuts the office door behind her. “Come here often?” she asks.

Lily sags in relief. “Jesus Christ.”

“What are you doing here?” Narcissa wants to know. 

“Same as you, I imagine,” Lily replies.

Given that it’s three in the morning and they’d both broken into a professor’s office, that’s a reasonable assumption. “You never take me anywhere nice,” Narcissa complains, and begins rifling through the cabinet. 

Lily continues packing her loot into her expanded bag. “Did you have a good holiday?” the younger girl asks.

“Honestly?” says Narcissa, critically eying a leaf from a Queen Anne’s lace plant, “No.”

“Me neither,” says Lily. “My dad got caught robbing a gas station and my mom overdosed on Christmas day. My sister spent the holidays with her boyfriend’s family, so I had to deal with it all myself.”

“My sister had a miscarriage,” Narcissa tells her. “Her husband is abusive and desperate for an heir, so I’m stealing the ingredients for a birth control potion for her because this is the second time it's happened and she says she can’t handle it anymore and I’m kind of afraid she’s going to hurt herself and I don’t want anyone to be able to trace the potion back to either of us if anyone finds out.”

Lily nods understandingly. “Someone poisoned my pumpkin juice this morning so I’m stealing the ingredients for a couple common antidotes. Turns out the Marauders are good for something. I always check my food before I eat it because of them.”

“Do you know who it was?” Narcissa asks. “I could take care of them for you.”

Lily shakes her head. “If you’re going to ‘take care of’ anyone it ought to be your sister’s husband. And besides, I think it was Crouch. Some sort of initiation for that Death Eater cult. You shouldn’t get involved.”

“My sister and her husband are Death Eaters,” Narcissa says. “I’m already involved.”

They stare at each other for a moment, Lily sitting on Slughorn’s desk and Narcissa elbow deep in stolen ingredients for a forbidden potion. “Come here,” Lily tells her.

Narcissa does, coming to stand in front of her. “It can’t have been Crouch. You have to be sixteen to join.”

Lily draws her closer and kisses her. “Are you a Death Eater?” Lily murmurs against her lips.

Narcissa kisses her back. “Voldemort hasn’t got much use for women,” she breathes. “Bellatrix is an exception.”

“Voldemort is an idiot,” Lily says, tangling a hand in Narcissa’s hair. 

This was not how Narcissa had seen her night going, but as Lily’s other hand slips under her shirt she decides she doesn’t mind.

\-------

“I’ve never done anything with another girl,” Narcissa says.

It’s a week later, and they’re in Narcissa’s dorm. The potion for Bellatrix is simmering merrily in a corner, warded against tampering and regarded with general disinterest by the other girls in the dorm. One, Elena Yaxley, had offered to pay her to brew one for her if this one was a success. All of the other girls are gone at the moment though, studying for OWLs or lounging in the Common Room. Lily, curled into her side and trailing her fingers across Narcissa’s stomach, says, “I have. It’s like with a guy, but with less scratchy facial hair involved. And no penis.”

Narcissa snorts. “Those aren’t really downsides.”

“Further proof women are the superior gender,” Lily agrees, hand moving higher. “I won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“Another difference between you and men,” Narcissa notes.

Lily raises her eyebrows. “Want to talk about it?”

“No,” Narcissa says. “I want to rip Rabastan Lestrange’s spine out and beat him with it, but that’s going to have to wait. Right now all I want is you.”

“I’m not sure if I should think that’s a turn on,” Lily blinks. “Whatever. Fuck men.”

“You could fuck me instead,” Narcissa offers, which is all the encouragement Lily needs to straddle her, leaning forward to kiss down her neck and one-handedly unbuttoning her blouse.

Narcissa runs her hands up Lily’s thighs and under her skirt. She moans a little when Narcissa hooks her fingers inside of the waistband of her underwear and drags her knuckles across her lower stomach. Lily retaliates by leaning back and saying. “Up for a second so I can unhook your bra.” 

As soon as Narcissa’s bra has been tossed carelessly to the side, Lily has one of her nipples in her mouth and is rolling the other between her thumb and forefinger. “Fuck,” says Narcissa, tugging at Lily’s underwear. “You should take these off.”

“You too,” says Lily, and they finish undressing. 

Her hand dips between Narcissa’s legs, trailing through the wetness and over Narcissa’s clit. She pops her finger in her mouth and smirks. “I like where that’s going,” Narcissa says.

Lily lays next to her, and they kiss while she runs her hand from Narcissa’s throat, over her left breast, and lower. Narcissa moans when she pushes two fingers inside of her. “You’re beautiful,” Lily tells her as she moves against her hand. 

Narcissa doesn’t reply, because Lily had taken the opportunity to slip another finger inside of her and was rubbing the pads of her fingers rhythmically over a spot inside of Narcissa that has her gasping. “Fuck,” she says again. 

“Yeah?” Lily asks against her neck. 

“Yeah,” Narcissa agrees, feeling her body start to tighten. “I’m–” she comes.

Lily waits for her body to still, and withdraws her fingers. “You’re incredible,” she says.

Narcissa shifts, kissing her neck. “That’s definitely you.”

Obligingly, Lily rolls onto her back, eyes fluttering closed as Narcissa kisses lower. She rests one hand on Lily’s hip, and plays with one of the other girl’s nipples with the other. She licks between her legs. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” she informs her, “So let me know what you like.”

“Yeah, fuck, like that,” Lily says when Narcissa establishes a rhythm. 

Narcissa digs her nails into her hip to keep her still, making the other girl moan. “You’re into that?” she asks breathlessly.

“Please, don’t stop,” Lily replies.

A minute later, she comes too. “Wow,” Narcissa says. 

Lily sighs contentedly. “I need a nap. Come cuddle.”


End file.
